Awesome Autumn Outing

My family and friends have often given me a hard time about how much attention I pay to the weather. Back in the day when we still had television I would check the Weather Channel throughout the day. When we would travel and find ourselves perchance staying in a hotel room, then I would turn on the television and find the Weather Channel. I honestly have more than one weather app on my phone. I even have weather on my satelite communicator. Knowing what’s coming in the forecast affects how I plan my activities, my meals, and sleep schedule.

So the past two weeks have been like something out of a dream! Here in east Tennessee the forecast has been what I consider perfect weather—highs in the mid-70s with lows in the low 40s—it doesn’t get any better than that. No rain on the horizon. Absolutely excellent to get out and look at the colors of the leaves and the blue sky by day and the clear skies at night. Okay, so there has been a little bit of fog a couple of times, but that’s not a big deterrent to getting out.

With all of that going on, I decided that I had to get out and camp in this at least once. Fall and camping go together like peanut butter and jelly!

I have built myself a camping platform to go in the Hikermobile 2.0. [I’ll do a more complete post about it at some point in the future—still adjusting/tweaking to make it better.] It will make it easier for me to get out for quick one-nighters which is what I had in mind for this one.

I had thought about a Tennessee State Park for this adventure, but several of the campgrounds have been closed for renovations and improvements. I’m thankful that those are happening, but it limits choices for me a bit.

So I decided that I would head up to Obed Wild and Scenic River. I got campsite 4 at Rock Creek Campground. It’s a small campground with no water, no electricity, no store—in other words it is very, very basic. Great! Sounds like just what I was needing. Since I have a Lifetime Senior Parks Pass it was only going to cost me $7.50 for the night—what a deal!

Even with my new platform I had booked this site online from the pictures I had seen. It looked like it had some trees so that I could hammock camp. Of course, with clear skies and no chance of rain, that’s what I opted to do. I picked a couple of trees that would work just fine. I used my regular hammock and my thicker quilts. I was toasty warm all night—no issues at all in that department.

Obed Wild and Scenic River is also an International Dark Sky Park. Far from city lights and highways, the skies here are ideal for stargazing. They have a saying for it: ‘Half the park is after dark.’ I enjoyed laying there in the hammock looking up at the stars. Yes, you can see so much more than most folks get to see. I had thought about driving up to Lilly Bluff Overlook to take it all in, but I was not really interested in driving all those curvy roads in the dark to get back to camp. I may think about doing that at some point, but on this trip it was enough to swing, sway, and stare at them from the comfort of the hammock. It will be even more impressive when the leaves are all gone from the trees—so I may have to camp out here again in the wintertime.

Of course, the other excellent element of this trip were the fall colors. I’m thinking they were just past peak, but there was still plenty to enjoy. On Thursday I hiked some of the Cumberland Trail out of the campground. Lots of maples and sourwoods and others putting on a show. I enjoyed walking along below the rock cliffs of the plateau. The cold gray of the rocks was in sharp contrast to the leaves. Lots of sunshine for all of it.

It was intensely quiet which was welcome.

Then I heard a train whistle. I thought to myself that perhaps it was one of those fall excursion trains, but it continued after dark as well. Not sure what line it was but it was busy.

I heard birds too. Lots of woodpeckers working those woods. There were kingfishers down by the river throughout the evening. When the light was fading an eastern Screech Owl let me know it was close by. In the morning there were a pair of pileated woodpeckers just above me in camp. A cacophany of crows was taking place as well. Nice when you have the quiet to focus on single birds.

I was in no hurry to get up on Friday morning. I noticed some fog on the river. I noticed when the traffic picked up on the Catoosa Road that ran by camp. I pretty much dozed off and on until there was more sunlight.

I fixed a breakfast of sausage, eggs, grits, and coffee. I didn’t spend any time cleaning up since it was just an overnighter without running water—packed it all up to wash it at home later in the day.

I hiked out the Point Trail. Again it was quiet and I only encountered a few other hikers. I stopped often to sit and soak it in. I took a longer break at the arch towards the Point. I saved the Lilly Bluff Overlook for the return trip—sort of a grand finale to the hike and the camp. Good choice. Vibrant reds, yellows, and gold were on the sides of the gorge. The river was slow and calm and reflecting the beauty above it.

So today the clouds are moving in. There’s a decent chance of rain in the morning. Still great weather for Halloween tonight. Good for everyone who will be celebrating it.

Rain in the forecast for this coming week. A little bit of wind and some rain will force the leaves to let go and fall—as they should. It has been a beautiful fall, and I’m grateful to have wrapped up October with an awesome Autumn outing!